Nerdist » A Song of Ice and Firehttp://www.nerdist.com
Tue, 03 Mar 2015 22:37:40 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1GAME OF THRONES Gag Reel Is More Fun Than Joffrey Would’ve Allowedhttp://www.nerdist.com/2015/02/game-of-thrones-gag-real-is-more-fun-than-joffrey-wouldve-allowed/
http://www.nerdist.com/2015/02/game-of-thrones-gag-real-is-more-fun-than-joffrey-wouldve-allowed/#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 22:00:37 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=228005We rarely get to see moments of unabashed bliss in the television adaptation of author George R. R. Martin’s famous A Song of Ice and Fire book series, but ever since King Joffrey took that fateful drink early last season, the mood in Westeros has been lightened a bit. Granted, the joy in this reel comes from the actors flubbing or forgetting their lines and not from their respective characters finding a path of personal victory, but it’s a bloody riot all the same!

Who knew Gwendoline Christie had such a great laugh? Come to that, who knew any of them did? King’s Landing doesn’t have a Chuckle Hut down in Flea Bottom to my knowledge.

The lols in this video come from every different direction in the Seven Kingdoms. From the Khaleesi forgetting lines, to Ser Pounce making a power play for more lines, to some missed steps (Oberyn, you been drinking with Cersei?), the laughs keep rolling in. For as profane as the show tends to be, all of the off-color words are bleeped so you can watch this at work, watch it with the family, put it on a loop to entertain the pets… it’s your call.

Season 5 of Game of Thrones returns in less than 7 weeks, on April 12th. I’ve attached the latest trailer below, because I know the 2 minutes worth of bloopers above are not enough to feed your addiction. I daresay 2 minutes of bloopers isn’t enough for any show, anywhere. I would happily pay thrice the price of a barrel of mead for a season’s worth of bloopers. Thrice, I say!

]]>http://www.nerdist.com/2015/02/game-of-thrones-gag-real-is-more-fun-than-joffrey-wouldve-allowed/feed/1Book Review: THE WORLD OF ICE & FIREhttp://www.nerdist.com/2014/12/book-review-the-world-of-ice-fire/
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/12/book-review-the-world-of-ice-fire/#commentsSat, 27 Dec 2014 18:00:30 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=211810Dear A Song of Ice and Fire fans: this is the post you’re looking for. I recently cracked open my copy of the oversized and beautifully bound The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, Elio M. Garcia, and Linda Antonsson, and besides having the longest title ever, it is a treasure that expands the world of Westeros. The 336 page volume is a history of the Seven Kingdoms – a prequel, if you will. It’s not the definitive history, but it is a captivating one full of magic, battles, and death. However, it’s important to keep in mind that reading The World of Ice & Fire is not the same experience as reading a novel. If you open this book expecting to be welcomed by the same style of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, you’ll be disappointed. If, instead, you go in expecting to learn about the coming of the First Men or the reign of Aegon III, you’ll be just fine.

After perusing the table of contents, the first thing I did was flip through the book and look at the illustrations. It’s not like I had to worry about spoilers. Though I found the text and histories eye-opening, the art is the shining star. There are family trees that show the lineage of houses Targaryen, Stark, and Lannister, there are a few maps, and there are vignettes that capture moments in the history of the Seven Kingdoms. The art factor means this book likely works best in print, not on the Kindle or any other e-reading device (I say likely because I’m speculating).

As mentioned above, this Song of Ice and Fire companion book is written by Martin with the assistance of Garcia and Antonsson. They’re fans who founded Westeros.org and seemingly know Westeros just as well as Martin if not better (they are able to study it from a different perspective). That said, as much as they draw from Martin’s notes, they had to fill in blanks and they’re not in Martin’s head. That’s why this isn’t a definitive history. It’s apparent when Martin isn’t at the helm, and while that’s not the worst thing in the world, that might not be what people are expecting when they purchase the book.

Their collaboration does work to a certain degree. For one thing, Martin is so busy that this book never could have happened without assistance. And it does present some interesting backstories. They make the fictional history mirror our own by including in-universe folk tales and speculation. I can’t imagine the amount of research and development that goes into intensive world-building like this, and I respect it. The negative aspect of the collaboration is that the tone and style can be uneven. The narrative is at its strongest when it focuses on stories about characters rather than events.

Since The World of Ice & Fire is basically a textbook (much cooler than any of my textbooks in school), it can come across as a touch dry. It’s not the type of book I couldn’t put down, and that’s okay. I read a handful of pages at a time, digested the information, and came back for more later. I approached the book as if it were J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. Well, that’s not entirely true. I was much more enthusiastic about The World of Ice & Fire. But, I knew it wouldn’t be an easy read. I knew I had to break it up in bite size pieces. Going that route made all the difference. If I would have forced myself to read the book cover to cover in a few sittings, I would have walked away with a different experience.

Overall, The World of Ice & Fire is a lovingly crafted and detailed look at the past of the world we’ve come to know through A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. While I would have preferred Martin to pen the entire tome in order to get the one hundred percent accurate rundown of the past, this is an engaging and satisfying read for any serious fan of A Song of Ice and Fire.

]]>http://www.nerdist.com/2014/12/book-review-the-world-of-ice-fire/feed/6HBO Wants Your GAME OF THRONES Fan Art, Food, and Cosplay for Its New Compendiumhttp://www.nerdist.com/2014/12/hbo-wants-your-game-of-thrones-fan-art-food-and-cosplay-for-its-new-compendium/
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/12/hbo-wants-your-game-of-thrones-fan-art-food-and-cosplay-for-its-new-compendium/#commentsWed, 10 Dec 2014 17:30:30 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=208624The Game of Thrones universe is a vast one — thanks mostly to the work of its prolific source material and author, George R.R. Martin. The A Song of Ice and Fire writer has given us plenty with which to let our imaginations run. And if DeviantArt is any indication — y’all run and run and run like there are White Walkers chasing you and your life depends on getting to The Wall. But it’s all about to get a bit bigger now that HBO has decided to solicit your works of art for a collaborative, crowd-sourced book of all things Westerosi.

According to the site for the thing — The Game of Thrones Compendium — the end product will be “the world’s first collaborative, crowd-sourced compendium. The end result will be a printed and bound edition. Every entry chosen for inclusion in the printed book will receive a copy with their name listed as an author.” So no pay but, hey: you’ll get a free book with your name on it?

Starting December 19th, fans will be allowed to submit their work through the site for sixteen weeks (that means the cut-off date is March 28, 2015 for those procrastinators out there keeping track at home). But it won’t just be a total free-for-all: there are six categories in which your addition must fit: art, music, costume, food, craft, and analysis. Once the submission period is over, a “VIP Council of Editors” will cull through the works to curate the final, printed product.

]]>http://www.nerdist.com/2014/12/hbo-wants-your-game-of-thrones-fan-art-food-and-cosplay-for-its-new-compendium/feed/1Here’s Why GAME OF THRONES is Sidelining Bran and Hodor for All of Season Fivehttp://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/heres-why-game-of-thrones-is-sidelining-bran-and-hodor-for-all-of-season-five/
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/heres-why-game-of-thrones-is-sidelining-bran-and-hodor-for-all-of-season-five/#commentsWed, 05 Nov 2014 21:30:47 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=198535Earlier in the year, Hodor — also known as DJ/actor Kristian Nairn — pulled a bit of a Hodor and Hodor’d up some apparently top secret information. Um, woopsies! In a bit of a super spoiler-y reveal, he revealed that neither he nor Bran Stark (Isaac Hempsted-Wright) were set to appear in the upcoming fifth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones. People were, naturally, shocked. But Bran finally reached the Three-Eyed Raven! The fate of poor Jojen Reed was unknown but admittedly grim! How and why would they do that to us?

Well, we finally have some answers thanks to one of the series’ co-creators, David Benioff, who spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the matter. Turns out? he and D.B. Weiss were none too pleased that the information was made known: “Ideally that wouldn’t have gotten out,” Benioff explained “and it’s unfortunate it did.” But, but, but! What were they going to do? Just leave us hanging? Spring it on us before the premiere?

Though he didn’t explain what their plan of action was going to be to reveal such news, Benioff did elaborate a bit on the why factor. And it actually makes a lot of sense — and will certainly satisfy those worried book reader fans who’ve been quite open about their fear of the show surpassing the books (in a detriment to their reading experience).

“The fact is, even though we’re making changes to the books and adapting as necessary, we’re trying to keep the various storylines the same as the books and trying to keep them roughly [chronologically] parallel. And last year we caught up to the end of Bran’s storyline [in A Dance with Dragons]. So if we pushed him forward this season, then he’s way ahead of where the other characters are.”

But don’t think that season six will necessarily pick up where we left off with Bran and Hodor. Oh no, no, nodor! Though cagey on the specifics — because that would naturally put them into a pretty serious The Winds of Winter spoiler territory — he did offer a nugget of information to appease the curious folk among us.

“[Bran]’s now entering a training period which is going to take quite some time,” Benioff explained. And not only is that going beyond what’s out there in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, on a very basic, visual storytelling level, “much of [it] isn’t particularly cinematic.”

So instead we’re left with a temporary respite from Bran’s antics north of The Wall, which will mean a big, exciting reveal in (hopefully) season six. “Rather than being stuck in a cave for a year, we figured it would be interesting to leave him out for a little bit, so when you see him again…” Benioff said before trailing off because, duh, spoilers.

So, what do you think of the decision to completely forgo Bran and Hodor’s trajectory in season five? Do you have any theories as to what state we’ll find Bran when he does return? Leave your thoughts and theories in the comments!

]]>http://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/heres-why-game-of-thrones-is-sidelining-bran-and-hodor-for-all-of-season-five/feed/10Holy Cats, New GAME OF THRONES Fan Video Basically Confirms a Very Exciting, Spoiler-y Thinghttp://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/holy-cats-new-game-of-thrones-fan-video-basically-confirms-a-very-exciting-spoiler-y-thing/
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/holy-cats-new-game-of-thrones-fan-video-basically-confirms-a-very-exciting-spoiler-y-thing/#commentsTue, 04 Nov 2014 19:02:00 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=198179We don’t like to say “I told you so!” but in this case we will. Because a recently uploaded behind-the-scenes fan video from the fifth season of Game of Thrones — currently filming all over the dang world — has all but confirmed something we suspected about the upcoming storylines. Particularly when it comes to our beloved Daenerys Targaryen.

It should go without say but run away now — like right, right now! — if you don’t want to be spoiled on a pretty major book occurrence with brand spanking new implications for the televised storylines. OK? OK.

—

Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s get into it. Remember this weekend when we saw new photos from Daznak’s Pit? And we were all excited about how Dany’s wedding was not only going to happen this season, but that Tyrion and Ser Jorah would be in attendance (something that does not happen in the books)? Well add another excitement layer to that deviation from page to screen, because it looks like Drogon’s return to Meereen will happen in the upcoming new season of Game of Thrones. Finally, someone from Westeros will witness the epic reality that dragons have returned to the Realm after many, many years without them, and they’re cranky as hell about it.

Guess all those scared Meereenese actually were fleeing Drogon’s wrath.

Filming in Osuna, Spain, recently wrapped and the production ended all of that work with quite the metaphorical bang. That fire work speaks to a seriously large and in charge Drogon, don’t you think? And, man oh man we can’t hardly wait to see Tyrion’s face when he sees the beastly bad-dragon in real life. Westeros has no idea what’s comin’ for ‘em.

What do you think about this development? Think this’ll be the season finale? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

]]>http://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/holy-cats-new-game-of-thrones-fan-video-basically-confirms-a-very-exciting-spoiler-y-thing/feed/3These Spoiler-y GAME OF THRONES Photos from Meereen Got Us Thinkinghttp://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/these-spoiler-y-game-of-thrones-photos-from-meereen-got-us-thinking/
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/these-spoiler-y-game-of-thrones-photos-from-meereen-got-us-thinking/#commentsMon, 03 Nov 2014 17:38:26 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=197758This post is dark and full of Game of Thronesmajor, major book and TV spoilers, citizens of the HBO and George R.R. Martin realms of Ice and Fire. Don’t say you haven’t been warned, mmkay? (The title really should’ve tipped you off though, to be fair.)

But things seem to be progressing quite a bit for our fair Khaleesi, as Daenerys Targaryen’s storyline in season five continues to expand in interesting, divergent directions thanks to these latest images from the set. Compiled mostly by GameOfThronesFan.org, the images show the continuation of earlier images from Daznak’s Pit in Meereen. And, hoo boy, do they reveal a lot for us to speculate on.

Now, previous images had already revealed to us that we’d be seeing more of Hizdahr zo Loraq (Joel Fry), the Ghiscari nobleman we met last season in the pyramids of Meereen. And well, now? It feels pretty safe to say that another huge deviation is afoot: Tyrion Lannister and Jorah Mormont won’t just be chilling on the outskirts of the city, but to the center of the action at Daznak’s Pit. And, yes, that seems to include the strategic wedding of Dany to Hizdahr.

It might also mean that we’ll see the return of Drogon, Dany’s most unruly dragon — and the only one not currently locked up under the city — with disastrous effect. Mostly because, if you look at the context clues, there are several Unsullied soldiers lying dead behind Dany as she runs into the pit — to say nothing of the utter chaos that has broken out in the audience, with folks seemingly fleeing in terror.

As it stands, these deviations feel less like an affront to the story itself — as so many fans have bemoaned — and more a distillation and simplification of the book story points for the sake of visual storytelling. Plus, it’s just plain easier to keep up with the same actors to which we’ve already been introduced. Sure, there are many rich characters and storylines we’re likely to miss, but the action can still progress in other ways.

Just look at the deviations with Jaime’s storyline heading to Dorne, likely taking the place of Ser Arys Oakheart (minus all that death stuff). And sure, there may be no Arianne Martell — something that surely does stink, to be sure — but if her plotline was given to, say, Ellaria Sand instead, it would likely be just as effective. She has plenty of reasons to want to take down the Lannisters, after all (R.I.P. Oberyn! We will never not miss you.) Plus Ellaria is no shrinking violet and will still give us the strong, female character with motivations that fall enough in line with Arianne’s modus operandi in the series to make the upcoming Myrcella business work.

So, what do you think of these latest developments in season five’s continued deviations, Thrones fans? Let’s hear your thoughts and theories in the comments!

]]>http://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/these-spoiler-y-game-of-thrones-photos-from-meereen-got-us-thinking/feed/6George R.R. Martin Judges GAME OF THRONES Costumes, Gets Quizzed By Amy Poehlerhttp://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/george-r-r-martin-judges-game-of-thrones-costumes-gets-quizzed-by-amy-poehler/
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/george-r-r-martin-judges-game-of-thrones-costumes-gets-quizzed-by-amy-poehler/#commentsSat, 01 Nov 2014 21:00:32 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=197434In case you missed it, George R.R. Martin had a bit of a run of the publicity circuit this week thanks to the release of his Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire companion behemoth, The World of Ice and Fire. But perhaps nowhere was he more amusing than during his stop over at Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday, where the author got seriously quizzed by Amy Poehler and Seth aaaaaaaand doled out a bit of judgement in regards to fan submitted costumes inspired by Westeros, Essos, and beyond. (The Known Realm is a veritable smorgasbord of potential Halloweenie looks.) And thankfully, there’s video evidence of both happenings for you to waste a little time watching this weekend while you try and remedy that Halloween hangover/sugar high candy crash.

First up? The costume contest. Complete with more Khaleesis than you can shake a stick at and…a monkey-Bran?

The surprisingly de-hatted GRRM was really put through the ringer, though, thanks to Our Lady of Everything Good, Ms. Amy Poehler, quizzed to the brink regarding the many, many, many characters the series has thus far brought forward. Like Melisandre, Cersei Lannister, and Robb Stark’s Aunt Pat (she was such a drag. Total negative Nancy — don’t you agree?), just to name a few. Which is to say — spoiler alert! — things got very, very silly in the best way. Naturally we’ve only one thing to say to all of this tomfoolery — Benioff and Weiss would do well to get Amy Poehler a cameo as one of these aforementioned characters TOUT DE SUITE. Ya hear me, boys?

Who would you cast Amy (or even Seth!) as in HBO’s Game of Thrones? Put your suggestions in the comments!

]]>http://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/george-r-r-martin-judges-game-of-thrones-costumes-gets-quizzed-by-amy-poehler/feed/0The 92 Street Y Brings George RR Martin & GAME OF THRONES’ Book THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE to NYChttp://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/the-92-street-y-brings-george-rr-martin-game-of-thrones-book-the-world-of-ice-fire-to-nyc/
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/the-92-street-y-brings-george-rr-martin-game-of-thrones-book-the-world-of-ice-fire-to-nyc/#commentsTue, 28 Oct 2014 20:00:01 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=195804On one of the first blustery evenings of what promises to be another frigid winter in New York City, George R.R. Martin spoke to a group of fans at the 92nd Street Y. No one uttered a “Winter is coming” but some of us were, I’m sure, thinking about it. Martin was in town to promote The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones, which hit stores today. And let me tell you, the book is drop-dead gorgeous.

Salon.com co-founder Laura Miller interviewed Martin with the live audience, reviewing pieces of the art featured in the book, learning the history of its writing — which encompasses a good portion of the time he’s been writing the series — and took questions from the audience.

“His head is full of people — lots and lots of people,” Miller said shortly before he took the stage, earning laughs from the crowd, and what followed was the intimate conversation you can watch in its entirety below.

It was most interesting to hear Martin discuss J.R.R. Tolkien and his influences on modern fantasy. Before Tolkien, fantasy writing consisted mostly of fables, fairy tales, and simple stories. With Lord of the Rings, suddenly worlds, people, and most importantly languages, were created to entertain.

“They expect a fully realized separate world,” he said speaking of fans of fantasy today. And with A Song of Fire and Ice, Martin has created one. The co-writers of the book, Elio García and Linda Antonsson, were some of the earliest fans to begin chronicling the complex world of Westeros. And after a friendship bloomed from the early exchange of emails between author and fans, they began tracking characters, storylines, landscapes and more. This was back in the 1990s, to give you an idea of how early of fans they were. Now they are credited as co-writers in his world history. He joked that it was because they sometimes know more about the world he created than he does himself.

Any fan of Game of Thrones will want to pick up the new book. In addition to beautiful art from a wide variety of incredible artists, it contains the answers to many of your questions. Not all of them though. You won’t find out the details of Summerhall.

“The hardest thing,” he told us, “was deciding what to tell and what not to tell.”

Are you eagerly awaiting the next installment in A Song of Fire and Ice? Tell us your favorite theories on who will win the Game of Thrones in the comments below.

]]>http://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/the-92-street-y-brings-george-rr-martin-game-of-thrones-book-the-world-of-ice-fire-to-nyc/feed/0New GAME OF THRONES Photos: Will Season 5 Be the Most Book-Divergent Yet?http://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/new-game-of-thrones-photos-will-season-5-be-the-most-book-divergent-yet/
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/new-game-of-thrones-photos-will-season-5-be-the-most-book-divergent-yet/#commentsWed, 22 Oct 2014 20:00:22 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=193998Well, well, well, Game of Thrones fans, prepare to be amazed and/or possibly incensed: the upcoming fifth season looks way less like the story book readers may have anticipated. In fact, some of the story might even be coming from the as-yet-unreleased sixth book of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter. In a series of new photos scattered across the far reaches of the known Internet, clues are slowly beginning to come out into the world. Naturally, there are a veritable smorgasbord of big-time SPOILERS coming up. So if that ain’t your thing, look away right MEOW.

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Because there are pictures and they’re right here and coming for your Realm-obsessed eyeballs, y’all.

OK, well, first thing’s first: Dorne. Jamie Lannister’s storyline has long been rumored — and was recently confirmed — to take him to Sunspear and roll with those saucy southerners, and with these latest images of him and the newly recast Myrcella Baratheon hanging out with Ellaria Sand, we’re fairly convinced that big changes are a-coming. In fact, with these new images and a lack of an Arianne Martell casting, we’re fairly certain that it shall be Ellaria that steps into that fan-favorite role, tackling the idea of succession and such.

Over in King’s Landing, the appearance of Ser Loras Tyrell also points to a potential shift in the story there, as Ser Loras Tyrell is still in town and not dying of his wounds from attempting to siege Dragonstone. A pretty major difference, to say the least. Since Ser Jaime is no longer going on his epic journey (that plot being taken care of by Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne it seems), perhaps it is Ser Loras who’s handling more of the darker doings at the Red Keep.

The appearance of Winterfell in the process of being rebuilt is also another interesting sight, because it means that we’re very likely to see the wedding of the bastard of Bolton — OK fine, he’s “naturalized” now, but he’s still a sonofa — to the fake Arya Stark. Will Jon Snow leave The Wall? And — does that mean he’ll survive what happened to him at the end of book five?

Perhaps the most exciting of all, though, is what’s happening in Meereen. Now this is where the major stuff is going on. And the good news comes courtesy of a very interesting tweet:

Why yes, that is Tyrion Lannister hanging out with Dany and her Meereenese husband (yup), Hizdahr zo Loraq. Looks like there’s another wedding planned — and we all know what that means. (Maybe.)

Fans of the books know that Tyrion goes on a very long, winding journey throughout much of book five before ending up in the service of Dany in Meereen. It involves a lot of side characters and — we have to agree with Vanity Fair‘s Joanna Robinson over here — not all of them are great. With this image — plus several others showing Ser Jorah in the fighting pits — it seems all but certain that Daenerys’ oft-sluggish and plodding storyline will get a bit more interest and weight to it. Considering we usually get the least amount of story from Dany and her dragonkids, an earlier arrival of Tyrion could heartily change all of that for the better.

So — what do you think of the set photos? Let’s hear your thoughts, theories, speculation, and outrage in the comments.

]]>http://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/new-game-of-thrones-photos-will-season-5-be-the-most-book-divergent-yet/feed/9Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Will Get LOST in New GAME OF THRONES Characterhttp://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/adewale-akinnuoye-agbaje-will-get-lost-in-new-game-of-thrones-character/
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/adewale-akinnuoye-agbaje-will-get-lost-in-new-game-of-thrones-character/#commentsSat, 18 Oct 2014 21:00:03 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=193025Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is about to get lost in the Realm. Not to say that’s the trajectory of his just-confirmed character on Game of Thrones, but it is a fun way to frame the news that the Lost actor will do some time in the world of ice and fire. See what we did there? Aren’t we so so clever? Naturally, this story contains potential spoilers and speculation about the upcoming season so if you prefer to remain unaware, go ahead and skip back to the main page.

In a “whoa, way to bury a story” aside in The Hollywood Reporter, Akinnuoye-Agbaje has been called out as yet another in a long line of new cast additions for the upcoming fifth season of the HBO series, based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels. And though details of the role are being kept hush hush at the moment, we do know that his is a character newly crafted — a/k/a not in the books — and will go by the name of Malko.

Considering the sort of overwhelming whiteness that makes up the majority of Westeros itself (sad, but no less true), it feels fairly easy to assume that Malko will come from the Free Cities or perhaps even Braavos — two places we’re going to see a lot more of in the upcoming season. Though there’s always the chance that he’ll end up being a Dornishman instead, as a lot of the House Martell story that we see in the books has yet to be told. (Oh, did you think that Oberyn was the beginning and end of it? Spoiler alert, it’s not.) Hopefully his Pompeii castmate, Kit Harington, has given him some pointers on how to deal with the epic series — even though we all know he knows (wait for it!) nothing.

What do you think of the new addition? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments!